Course description| This course focuses on academic reading and writing skills, including extensive work in reading comprehension and retention. Students will practice identifying topics, determining the main idea of a text, recognizing the supporting details of a paragraph, recognizing authors’ writing patterns, and understanding new vocabulary through context clues. Emphasis is given to the rhetorical structures of the argumentative essay.|

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...the MainIdea of a Paragraph
An important part of developing reading comprehension is identifying the mainidea of a paragraph or passage. The mainidea states the author's overall purpose for writing. Identifying the mainidea and restating it in your own words develops skills of comprehension and analysis. Though there are several techniques for identifying themainidea of a reading selection, some general guidelines and strategies for both reading and checking your decision can enhance your ability to select important information from a passage.
Finding the MainIdea
1) Read the title. Some paragraphs or passages will have a heading or title that describes the mainidea of the passage. If a title is "Popular Garden Flowers" then the following paragraph will likely describe what kinds of flowers are common in gardens.
2) Read the first sentence of the paragraph. Many paragraphs begin with a topic sentence that outlines the mainidea or point of the entire passage. The sentences that follow the topic sentence provide supporting details. For instance, read the following passage. "Roses are a popular type of flower in gardens. Roses are easy to grow and beautiful to look at. Roses...

...Background
You’ve applied for a specific job in your field of study. The Human Resources Department arranges an
interview and tells you to bring with you a polished piece of writing for them to evaluate your writing
skills. The paragraph must describe one particular experience you’ve had that inspired you or guided
you to choose the type of position for which you applied.
Your audience is your potential employer and your purpose is to show you have thought carefully
about what and/or who has motivated you toward this career choice and why. In addition, you want
to convey your enthusiasm for this position as it relates to your inspiring experience. Take time to
think about what your audience wants to know and strive to reach a balance between informal and
formal business writing.
Process
1. Prewrite about your field of study and create a specific job for which you might want to apply
at a particular business or organization in your area. Outline what that position would look like.
Brainstorm details, names, titles, and facts to provide depth to your paragraph and enable you
to write a polished paragraph.
Here is my draft
For many years I have worked in Customer Service performing the duties of Billing, and Collection of client’s payments. Even though I enjoy my job I always wanted to be able to work from home. After doing some research I came across an article about working for home. In this...

...During the Enlightenment, revolutionary thinkers called philosophes brought about new ideas as to how to better understand and improve their society. They were all modern thinkers and had the best interests of society in mind. Although each philosoph had his or her own ideas, they all centered around one main theme: equality and human freedom.
One famous influential philosopher was John Locke. Locke was born in England in the mid 17th century and lived through both the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution. He strongly believed in equality for all men. In his book Second Treatise on Civil Government, he says that “creatures of the same species and rank…should be equal amongst another without subordination or subjection….” Locke wrote this piece in 1690, and 86 years later Thomas Jefferson incorporated Locke’s ideas into our very own United States’ Declaration of Independence. Locke also believed that the people should have the power in government. He argued that if a government was proven unbeneficial to the people then the people had the responsibility to change or create a new government. According to Locke, a government exists to protect the rights of the people and freedom is a natural right, so it is the responsibility of the government to protect the people’s freedom. In order to do so, he advocated that legislative and executive branches of government would be indispensable in doing so,...

...MainIdea of The Enlightenment
The Enlightenment which was during the seventeenth and eighteenth century was a time that helped shape the capitalistic, democratic world we live in today. The Enlightenment was also called the Age of Reason because that period was a time of high intellect and bright new ideas. Philosophers would meet to discuss economic, political, social, and religious questions. These questions made the philosophers hope that they might some new ways to understand and improve their society. They also hoped that they could become like the famous scientist Isaac Newton but for social sciences. There is an idea that is basic to all of the four philosophers, but the question is: what was their mainidea? John Locke was the philosopher who captured the whole idea of The Enlightenment.
The mainidea of The Enlightenment was about people’s rights and their freedom. John Locke did a good job explaining it in an excerpt from Second Treatise on Civil Government which was written in 1690 (eighty-six years ago). In the excerpt Locke speaks about how all men have freedom to do what they want as long as they are not breaking the law. He also says that people are born with reason and have three natural rights. The three natural rights are life, liberty, and property (pursuit of happiness). “(W)e must consider, what state all men are naturally...

...Coach Jackson/Ms. Kuykendall/Mrs. Kirby
SENIOR EXIT PORTFOLIO COMPONET 1 PART 2
The 5-Step Personal Essay
Writing Guide: “Future Career”
Writing about your future career is an excellent way to show colleges and scholarship organizations
how you will use your education. College is not your final destination, but a springboard that will
help you reach larger goals in life. Colleges and scholarship organizations do not expect you to be
100% certain about your future job. Don’t be afraid to aim high and write about your dream job.
STEP 1: Brainstorm Your Future Career
You don’t need to be absolutely certain about your career choice. You’re going to write about your
dream job and there’s no limit to what this could be. Answer these questions to help you decide
what to put in your essay:
1. What is your dream job? _______________________________________________________
2. What attracts you to this job? ___________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
3. How did you first get interested in this type of work? Did someone in this career inspire you?
How? ________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. What do you hope to accomplish in this career? _____________________________________...

...Danielle and his younger brother josh.
The police won’t tell us anything about his disappearance honestly I think they don’t know anything about it themselves it seems like they aren’t even trying to find tyler they probably just forgot all about ty that my nickname for tyler. Going to school and going to all the classes we had together doesn’t feel right without him there sitting where we used to under the weeping willow tree even though mark is here it still isn’t the same.
Because of tyler’s disappearance mom wants to move away to some stupid town called rithbridge which is out in the damn bush somewhere hours away, yeah that’s smart mom take me a luna to some deserted bush place away from civilisation while tyler is missing what a brilliant idea STUPID WOMAN! I won’t go ill run away if I have to just so mom doesn’t take me away from Danielle mark and josh I’ll do all I can to stay here wether that dumb bitch likes it or not she is so ignorant I mean unlike some im not stupid enough to get the way tyler did if I leave my house its only to go to tyler’s or mark’s house. And unlike some I don’t leave my damn house without my phone I still don’t get why he would do that he never goes out without his phone and if he does he comes home straight away to get his phone .
A few months after tyler disappeared the police had found a dead body down by the lake side half a mile away from where we all lived they didn’t know who their john doe was until they did the...

...statements:
o I am a person who loves to laugh.
o By nearly losing my life, I learned to live.
o Being a student is the perfect role for me.
• Once you have developed your thesis statement—a one-sentence statement about you—create main points and sub-points that explain why, how, when, where, who, etc. EVERYTHING in your outline should explain and describe the thesis.
• Speech length: Prepare and deliver a 3-minute speech. Your speech will be timed. You have a 30-second (+/-) grace period. That means your speech must be no shorter than 2.5 minutes and no longer than 3.5 minutes. Create a Preparation Outline (see chapter 6) to help you get ready.
• EVERYONE will submit a copy of the Formal Sentence Outline (see chapter 6) to the instructor on the first day that the Presenting Me! speeches begin. To view an example of a successful Formal Sentence Outline submitted by a public speaking student, scroll down.
• Submit your Key Word Outline ON INDEX CARDS (see text p. 142) to the instructor immediately after you deliver your speech. To view an example of a Key Word Outline for the sample speech, scroll down to the end of this document.
• Your Key Word Outline should contain no complete sentences except for your thesis statement and very short quotations (no more than eight words). This means that you will not read your speech. Speak...